Romanian Art

Pottery

The Dacian-Getic pottery developed by using a wheel operated with the foot while molding. The Romans brought to Dacia a new style in pottery art, developed by adapting the forms of the Greek art in a simplified version, a style that lasts to this day. Later on, the influences of the Byzantine ceramics with enamel, as well as introduction to European art, brought about the emergence of a local production (Curtea de Arges) that, together with the old traditional Dacian-Getic and Roman art, cultivated a bright chromatism made with a brush or a horn arranged in original shapes. Classified according to the burning system, Romanian ceramics include two groups: (a) the black ceramics of Dacian tradition; and (b) the red ceramics, whose development has been influenced by the assimilation of elements of Roman origins. The black ceramics have tall, slim, or conic shapes and generally show a simple, discreet decoration of classical distinction. The red unenameled ceramics show the elegance of their shapes and decorations usually in white or brown and assert an aesthetic vision of accuracy and consistency. A technique specific of Romanian pottery, jiravirea cu gaita, or a manner of scratching the clay that permits the colors painted on the pottery to intermingle without mixing, results in a pattern of intertwined delicate lines. Romanian folk ceramics have a multitude of traditional methods and techniques, which are:(a) angobare, the covering of the surface of the pottery with very fine, usually white, clay in order to seal its porosity and hide its colour; (b) glazing, the laying of a protective stratum resembling enamel but which is transparent; (c) graphiting, the colouring of the surface by rubbing it with fine coal or graphite; (d) imbrinare, the sticking of thin clay rolls having ornamental functions on the surface of the unburnt pot by pressing them with the fingers; (e) incision, a decoration system consisting in the scraping of the unburnt surface with simple drawings , usually linear, then spirals and meanders, taking care that the edges of the cut should not have lateral irregularities; (f) inlay, the filling of the excised parts on the surface of the pot with coloured material; (g) jiravire, a device characteristic only of Romanian ceramics, achieved with the help of a gaita (a comb with hair cogs) which allows the painted colours to intermingle without mixing; (h) polishing, the rubbing of the surface of the pot, which is still unburnt, with a hard object in order to make the surface compact and thus lend it a black metallic shine; (i) enameling, the covering of the pot with an opaque layer of metallic oxides (sometimes tin or zinc) vitrified by baking; and (j) zgrafitare, the scraping of the unburnt part so that the clay background should appear, which has darker colour after burning.
 

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